10 Most Terrifying Vehicle Manufacturing Defects

For cruise control problems, the Lincoln Navigator was the most recalled of all of the Ford vehicles -- but millions of other vehicles were affected, too. Ford Motors/Newsmakers/Getty Images

So, let's say you're driving along, doo-dee-doo, when you begin to smell something funny. "Am I driving past a paper pulping plant?" you ask yourself. Or "Is someone burning refuse?" Before you get a third guess, your car is on fire. Cruise control switches built by Texas Instruments (yes, the same folks responsible for your first fancy calculator) and used in Ford cars and trucks built between 1991 and 2004 — a total of 14.9 million vehicles — would short-out and catch fire. The exciting part was, you didn't even have to be using cruise control for the fiery fun to begin! And that, friends, is both terrifying and the largest recall in history.